Brilliant film of many layers......

Rating: 10/10 (20 September 2011)

As I've admitted before: I do like a dystopian end of the world narrative. Some films of this genre are fantastic, others dire, but this one, well.......
Just viewed this again for the umpteenth time after waiting a few years since the last I watched it.
I'll cut to the chase: if you have not seen this before and are looking for a fast, at times nerve wracking experience complete with believable lead protagonists, then give it a go.
Okay, as the message says SPOILERS ALERT.
Cutting to the Chase: This film never ever lets up. However, rather than the unwatchable smash bang wallop of films like 2012 (yes, I detested this) this is how it is done. Each scene links on to yet more fear and horror, all the time introducing little facets of the major characters' personalities and just how they are transforming themselves in a bid to survive a world where most of the population are 'infected' with rage. I have always thought that what makes particular horror / dystopian stories WORK is our investment in the people trying to survive. The more realistic they are, the more we engage with them. The 'infected' move like lightning, adding to the fear and loathing that permeates this film. The editing is effective and you feel, with the characters, that you are on edge, looking over your shoulder
Jim: 'Everyman' - one of the most effective - and affecting - decisions of the film makers here, is to make their lead character so unlike a gung ho hero in waiting. Jim is sensitive, scared and at a loss. It is no mere coincidence that the very first shots of the film reveal a monkey pinned down by scientists on a bed, the first time we see Jim, the shot is mirrored. As we see Jim 'pinned' down with the wires and paraphernalia of the modern hospital intensive care unit. I feel the audience is positioned with Jim, he is 'us' if you like. His journey and transformation sees him change (like the monkey on the hospital bed) from sensitive, scared man to a man infected by RAGE - he doesn't catch the disease of the blood, but his actions towards the end when he 'rescues' the two women (Selena and the young girl) see him behaving in an almost identical way to the infected. The knowing look from the infected black army fella, who has been kept tied up 'to be watched' when Jim sets him free, suggests a kind of understanding. His journey from gentle bloke ('Hello? Hello?') to a man who has to kill an infected child, to a man who can dig his fingers into someone's eyes, is terrifying.
When he wakes up in the cottage at the end, he has already had a premonition of the place earlier in the film (blink and you'll miss it), but in the premonition the word 'Hello' says 'Hell'- so the ending is not without its disturbing echoes. The end is a mirror of the beginning. Jim waking up after being seriously hurt - and surviving. The ending is so ambiguous, while on the one hand the 'infected' are dying, that faceless helicopter, after the army guys we meet earlier in the film, suggests threat and danger as much as rescue.
Look, if you want to watch this as pure entertainment, you can. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a film that is layered and keeps revealing more each time you watch it, or you want a good film to write an essay on, this is your film.
Well worth repeat viewings, get the pause button ready. Some of the scenes are just so powerful and revealing.
Yes, I love this film!